The present invention relates generally to air processing equipment used in residential, commercial, and industrial settings. The present invention relates to a base for an evaporative heat exchanging device used in air or water processing equipment. More specifically, the present invention includes to a base support structure for a bottom supported fill media used in an evaporative heat exchanging device known as a cross flow cooling tower.
It is known in the art to use air handling equipment to cool, heat, moisturize, dry, or otherwise condition or process air for a variety of uses. These uses can include the climate control of the particular space into which people or animals will occupy or the manipulation of air or water used in other industrial processes. One device commonly used in the conditioning of air is the evaporative cooling device, which is also known as a cooling tower. Typically in a cross flow cooling tower, air is drawn through a media over water to create evaporative cooling wherein the cool water is then used in a heating exchanger of another piece of air processing equipment, for example, an air conditioner. In the typical cross flow cooling tower, a flow of air and a flow of water travel in substantially perpendicular paths to one another. The water normally travels down various sheets of plastic through channels or flutes used to enhance the heat exchange between the water and the air. These sheets of, typically PVC, are known in the art as fill media. These can be sheets either supported from the top using a rod assembly or can be bundled fill packs supported off the cold water basins.
For example, U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,227,095, 5,958,306, 6,237,900, 6,460,832, 6,517,058 and 6,715,740 all disclose cooling towers or types of fill media, also known as film sheets or fill packs, used in cooling towers. As a review of these patents shows, most of the consorted effort to improve the cooling towers has been in the redesign of the actual sheets that make up the fill media or in the working portions of the cooling tower which include the water distribution and air circulation systems.
Most of these prior art patents have overlooked the basic support structure used in connection with a bottom supported fill media in a cross flow cooling tower. For example, most of the prior art used wood or metal supports for the structure, or framework, to elevate the fill bundles off of the cold water basins. Normally this is galvanized metal. Additionally, little thought has been given to the proper location of the various components that set down and position the prior art support structures. The prior art structures are normally positioned on the cold water basins often time putting excessive stress on the pan sections due to the weight of the complete fill assembly not being equally distributed across the cold water basin pan sections.
The prior art support structures fail to appreciate a need to vary the height of the fill media off the cold water basins within various cross flow cooling towers. Additionally, the prior art fails to appreciate a need for proper water flow within the cold water basin of the cooling tower. As such, the prior cooling towers have a tendency to develop low spots or “trap” locations in which silt and debris are held and can become stagnant and collect bacteria and other unwanted impurities. When maintenance is performed on these prior art cooling towers, the low spots, or trap locations hold the silt and debris which can adversely affect the ultimate performance of the air handling equipment.
What is needed then is an improved support system for heat and mass transfer devices used in the processing of air. This needed support preferably allows for multiple flow directions of water held in the cold water basin of a cooling tower as well as adjustments in the positioning of the elements that comprise the base in order to properly support the fill media. This needed base is lacking in the art.